DIY Halloween Garland

Halloween is nearly upon us! Looking for some last minute, cheap decor?  I am always looking for free and very cheap DIY projects for Halloween. I love having decorations as well as not having to spend money on them! Here is the link to the original pin: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/547539267175217121/ .

So what is this garland? Just some Halloween ornaments you make with salt dough, then decorate and hang on some string.

To make the salt dough, first I gathered all of my ingredients. You will need: salt, flour, water, a bowl, something to stir with, measuring cups, cookie cutters, a pen, a rolling pin, cookie sheets and a clean work area.

Combine 1 cup of salt...yes a whole cup of salt with 2 cups of flower. Stir well. 

Then add a cup of luke warm water. You definitely don't want to be eating this dough! 

Knead the dough until smooth. It will feel like gritty play dough. The gritty texture is because of the salt.

Next, treat the dough as sugar cookie dough. Roll out to desired thickness (not too thin but not too thick) and cut out with Halloween themed cookie cutters. 

Then lay on a cookie sheet. Take a pen and poke a hole near the top of each one.

I had some left over dough, so I got my cats to leave their pawprints so I can make them into Christmas ornaments. Don't ask me how I got them to stay still long enough! I still don't know!

Once you have all of your holes  punched and shapes prepared, either bake in the oven or air dry for a few days. If you choose to bake them, bake at 200 degrees for 1-3 hours. It depends on how thick your ornaments are.

Once done, get some acrylic paint and paint each one. I painted them by hand since I usually have some acrylic craft paint around. You could even use acrylic spray paint to save time. 

 Then get some high gloss acrylic spray paint and spray each one to preserve them and get a nice finish.

I recommend using ribbon to string the ornaments onto. I cut some pieces of ribbon in half so they would fit through the holes better, made them into ornaments. 

Next, line up your ornaments in the order you would like them to go onto the garlands. This is also useful to help measure the distance between each. I put about 5 inches between each one. 

Then tied the ornament ribbons onto a long piece of ribbon. 

Little tip, but be very careful!!! If your ribbon frays, put it close to a lighter. I used a torch lighter. The fire melts and seals in the edges. Just don't light it on fire. Or yourself. Or burn your house down. Use common sense! 

From there all you have to do is hang your garland up! There you go, a simple and cute Halloween decoration! 

Hope you enjoyed this post. If anyone makes this, please send me pictures I would love to see them! 

Until next time! 

Xoxo, 

Stay creepy!